On The Road with Jim and Pat

Hello from Pueblo, CO

Monday morning   September 3, 2012   (First travelogue of this trip).

We wrote a blog about being here on June 4, 2012.  As I noted then, I have been a volunteer corner worker at vintage car races sponsored by RMVR (Rocky Mountain Vintage Racing).  Their website:  http://rmvr.com/ .

We arrived at the track  Friday afternoon and parked in the same location we did in June – close to the dragstrip return road (map).  If you zoom in on the map, you can see the dragstrip and road race course.  They again had a Friday night drag races.  The drag racing event this time seemed to be much smaller and did not have the great cars that were here in June.  Still, I got to do some cruising of the pit on my bicycle.

I was so proud of myself bringing the bicycle on this weekend trip (did not bring a toad).  It allowed me to get a bit exercise and cruise the pits.  The other benefit was a way of getting to my station.  The track is pretty spread out and it is a long way to most of the corners.  Well, I rode the bike to my station in corner 6 thinking I was pretty smart.  However, as soon as I got on the bike to go to lunch, I found that the rear tire was flat.  Pueblo has a terrible problem with what I found to be “goathead thorns” (information here).  As I researched what the thorns were, I ran into several sites that talked about these thorns causing bicycle flats.  Supposedly I have torn proof tubes, but I guess they don’t have a chance against these suckers.  To make matters worse, we tracked some into the bus and they really hurt when you step on them!!!  They even draw blood!!!

Saturday and Sunday I worked on corner 6. Compared to where I worked last time (corner 9) it had much less activity.   Like last time, we did have a car drop a bunch of oil on the track starting at our corner and going into corner 7.  The drivers seemed to heed the debris flag this time and did not have a problem.  We put some oil dry down between races and that took care of the problem.

As I said last time, being a corner worker is a mixed bag.  You are right on the track and get to observe some neat racing, but you are on your feet eight hours a day.  I used my scanner, with headphones, to monitor the control frequency, so I was quite informed about the race and the “inside” information.   Both Saturday and Sunday were hot (95 and 91 degrees).  They really treat the volunteer workers very well.  We wear all white and the racers go out of their way to thank us.   We get to go to the head of the line for a free lunch, and the special Saturday night barbeque.  AND they have a great selection of craft type beer!!!!

Pat likes to come down here.  Not so much for the races, but for the ability to “hide out” and get a lot of Stampin work done.  She has several activities over the next few weeks and this gave her the opportunity to put a big dent in the preparation work.

As we did last time, Sunday night we made the short (500 yard) trip out to the security area and spent the night on a nice flat dirt area overlooking Pueblo.  Awfully dry down here, but still pretty in a strange way.

That is all for now.

Evergreen, CO

Sunday afternoon  August 5, 2012

We are very proud!!

Some of you have followed our daughter Kelly’s cancer diagnosis.  She was diagnosed with breast cancer on  March 11, 2011 at the age of 42.  She had a double mastectomy on May 6, 2011.  We documented “The Journey” in several posts on this blog starting here.

Our family watched in horror as we saw how devastating this surgery is.  We witnessed the terrible pain from the original surgery (as well as two subsequent surgeries) and the inability to perform even the most basic functions with her arms (huge muscle damage) including holding her daughters.  We were amazed at her very positive attitude and how diligently she performed her rehabilitation. 

A few months ago she set a goal of completing a triathlon.  Not just any triathlon, but the “Tri for the Cure” which raises funds for breast cancer research  (information here)

Well today, a day short of her 15 month surgery anniversary, she completed the event in 1:54:45.  Her goal was two hours and she beat that!  She participated in the “survivors” wave and folks were so enthusiastic for this group.  When she crossed the line (photo), there was not a dry eye in our group!!!

There were 1971 finishers and her time was just about the middle of those finishers. This is a huge accomplishment, considering that she has never entered a triathlon.  As is the case with everything she does, she put a huge amount of effort (both mental and physical) into her training.  This is even more amazing when you consider that, while her recovery has gone well, she still is not a 100%. 

We are so very glad that her recovery is almost complete and that her husband and daughters have been so supportive.

Hello from Craig, CO

Sunday evening:   July 22, 2012   (third travelogue of this trip).

We are at the Hampton Inn in Craig (map).  We stayed here last year on our way out to Salt Lake City.  It is a great place and we have been impressed with Hampton Inns in general. 

Our trip today started with the climb out of Salt Lake on I-80 to Park City and then on US-40 through Utah into Colorado.  Even though we have taken this route several times, we enjoy the varied scenery and the small towns.  The road itself is in good condition and fairly easy to drive. 

Last night was very special.  Lynn, one of Pat’s downline, obtained tickets to a special presentation of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  The special guest performer was Katherine Jenkins.  She has an unbelievable voice (described as mezzo-soprano) and is also known for her great performance on Dancing With The Stars.  Our seats were perhaps 20 rows back and almost in the center of the stage.

The concert was held in the Mormon Conference Center.  The auditorium is indescribable.  The stage is huge and it seats 21,000 people (most of the seats were filled).  It is reported to be the largest theater style auditorium ever built (reference).  The photo below was taken from a newspaper review of the first night’s concert (here).  You can see the huge array of pipes for the pipe organ, the choir and the vast number of members of the orchestra.  The acoustics of the auditorium are fantastic.  Without question, the performance was amazing.

Tomorrow we will continue our drive on US-40 to Empire where we will intersect with I-70 and then home.  It is a bit less than 200 miles.

That is all for this trip.

Hello from Salt Lake City, UT

Saturday evening:   July 21, 2012   (second travelogue of this trip).

We are at the Marriott at City Creek (map).  This is my third stay here with Pat and she has stayed here several other times for the Stampin’ Up! convention.  The other two times I was here, we had corner rooms and that was great since they were constructing the City Creek shopping mall.  This time we have a room facing north which overlooks Temple Square and some of City Creek.

City Creek is essentially complete.  It is an amazing place.  It spans almost three city blocks and has two areas where the roof can be retracted when the weather permits.  There are two anchor stores; Nordstrom and Macy’s.  Most of the retail spaces are leased and the stores are generally upscale establishments.  Even during the week the stores are pretty crowded and folks are carrying lots of shopping bags.  The food court has many unique restaurants and it is crowded as well.

Pat has been going non-stop since the convention started on Wednesday.  This is the last day and it is probably just as well, as she is half dead {grin}.  The attendance is about the same as last year: 3400.  That is about half of the attendance from a few years ago, but the enthusiasm of the demonstrators is still very high.  One of the major activities of the conventions is what they call “swapping”.  Most of the demonstrators make a large number of cards that they swap with other folks (to get ideas).  I attended a swapping session on a ship and it was like a feeding frenzy at the zoo {big grin}.   At conventions it is much lower key.  I have attached a photo of Pat swapping with lady that she sees at every event.  Pat had been working on her swaps, but got behind.  So we spent Tuesday night working together to get her swaps ready.  She ended up with about 150 swaps.

Thursday was my seventieth birthday.  I knew that Pat would be tied up, so I made arrangements to visit a good friend and fellow bus nut.  Kent and I have been good friends for several years and he has helped me obtain some major parts for the bus.  Kent has been fighting a significant bout with cancer.  I was glad to see that he is doing OK thanks to some very advanced medication. 

We took his 1957 Crown bus on a little ride and it was really fun.  He bought the bus in 1981 and has done some major and amazing work on the bus.  He converted from a mid-engine configuration to a modern engine in a fabricated rear engine compartment.

It is always fun to visit Kent and it was great to share my birthday with him.  I have included a photo of Kent and I in front of his bus.

Last night we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.  It is located in the City Creek complex.  The waiting time was over 45 minutes, but the food was great.  We shared a dinner and a piece of fabulous cheesecake and it was just the right amount of food.  While we waited outside, we had great people watching.  In addition, we watched some neat cars pull up the the valet parking stand including a very stealthy Ferrari.

That is all for now.

Hello from Green River, UT

Monday evening:   July 16, 2012   (First travelogue of this trip).

We are at the River Terrace Inn in Green River Utah (map).  We are on our way to Salt Lake City for Pat’s Stampin’ Up! convention.  We are driving the PT Cruiser on this trip.  We drove about 330 miles today – mostly on I-70.  It is a very scenic drive and enjoyable drive.

We left Denver about 9:00 AM and got here about 3:00 PM.  We have stopped here many times in the past. Indeed, when I was a kid, my folks would stop in Green River when we drove to California.  I guess it has become a long standing tradition. 

Our room overlooks the Green River and we had dinner in the adjoining Tamarisk Restaurant this evening – again a ritual.  They have good food and the dining room overlooks the river.

I often talk about the reason for this blog – to document our travels.   We started the blog in January, 2008 (before the blog we documented our travels in emails to our family).  I often go back to past posts to recall details as I plan our trips.  This past few weeks, I had a bunch of  fun reading old posts and recalling all of the fun times we have had in our travels.  If you have followed our blog for any time, you will note that I generally include the location in the title.  This makes finding selected posts easier.  There is a search engine, but using the “blog archive” feature is generally sufficient to hone in on the blog I am looking for.

Tomorrow we will travel on US 6 through Price, UT to Provo and then north on I-15 north to Salt Lake.  The drive is less than 200 miles.  We will get a fairly early start so that we can  check in early to avoid the rush when all the demonstrators arrive.

That is all for now.

Hello from Evergreen, CO

Subtitled:  Ten Grandkids!

Sunday evening   July 8, 2012   (Second travelogue of this trip).

We have been home since 1:00 PM on Thursday.  I have stayed in “vacation mode” for the past few days (AKA being lazy). 

This family vacation was a bit different from past ones.  We all took it pretty easy and did not try to cram a bunch of activity into the week.  Pat and I were the most laid back of the group.  I got to catch up on a lot of reading and Pat got to have a lot of special time with the grandkids (to be clear, we both enjoyed our time with all the family members).

It was so fun to have Irina, Matthias and Viktor with us.  Viktor is so friendly and even though he had no idea what we were saying, he found fun ways to communicate with us.  Pat and I got to spend a lot of time talking to Matthias about the medical practice in Germany vs the US. 

The weather continued to be pretty good.  The evenings were cool (down to 44 degrees one night) and the days were not too hot.  We only ran the AC in the bus one day.  We did have a bit of rain and some pretty good winds at times but it would be hard to complain about the weather considering all the terrible hot weather and flooding in other parts of the country.

The terrible drought in Colorado forced cancellation of many fireworks shows on the fourth.  That included both the Dillon and Frisco shows.

Now, lets talk about 10 grandkids.  Those of you know us, know that we have 8 “natural” grandkids.  However, we claim and love two additional grandkids:  Austin (the Jeute’s have legal guardianship) and Viktor (we consider Irina and Matthias as part of our family).  I have attached a photo of that wonderful group taken at our campground.

That is all for this trip.

Hello from Dillon, CO

Saturday Afternoon   June 30, 2012   (First travelogue of this trip).

We are the Heaton Bay Campground (map).  This campground is located between Dillon and Frisco on the shores of Dillon Reservoir.   We are having our annual family vacation.  This year is special in that we have our extended family (’81/’82 German exchange daughter and her family). 

Irina and Matthias and their three year old son Viktor flew to Denver on Thursday 6/21.  We met them at the airport and had a quick reunion before taking them to their hotel.  The next day we met them at the Cruise America RV rental facility so that they could rent a 25 foot motorhome.  They have been camping at a few locations before joining us here on Thursday.  We will be here until 7/5.  After they leave here, they will be doing some additional camping in the Crested Butte/Taylor Reservoir area.

We have kept in close contact with Irina and her family over the years.  We have been fortunate to have all of her family visit us.  Irina has made several return visits.  Pat and I have also visited Irina several times.  In 2004 Irina and Matthias joined our family vacation in Ouray, CO.  On the way, Matthias proposed to Irina on Monarch Pass!!!!  In 2005 we traveled to Karlsrhue, Germany to attend their wedding (Kelly, Damon and Madison also got to attend the wedding).

We arrived here Thursday afternoon (6/28).  Kelly, Lisa and Irina and their families will be here the full time and Judy and family will be here part of the time.

This campground was decimated by the pine bark beetle a few years ago, but it is showing signs of new growth.  It is surrounded by beautiful mountains on all sides.  The campground is at about 9100 feet, so the days are much cooler than the terribly hot weather in Denver and the evenings are chilly (lower 40s).  I have attached a photo of the bus in the campground.  The photo does not do justice to beautiful mountains in the background.

So far, we have mostly been relaxing and having fun with the kids and grandkids.

That is all for now.

Hello from Pueblo, CO

Monday  morning  June 4, 2012   (Fourth travelogue of this trip).

The last post had us in Brush Colorado headed to Pueblo down CO 71.  That was an interesting two lane road.  Parts of it were picturesque rolling farm land and parts were pretty barren.  The road itself was a mixed bag.  It was easy to drive, but quite rough in a few segments.  Never-the-less, it saved us driving through the middle of Denver and Colorado Springs. 

We stopped at the Wal Mart in Pueblo to pick up some supplies and it was not a fun experience.  We took the main entrance and there were cars going ever which way.  When we tried to get to the open areas of parking, we could not get pass a couple of vehicles and we partly blocked traffic for several minutes.   Fortunately the owner on one vehicle came back and moved his vehicle and that allowed us to get out of the traffic.  If the driver had not returned to his car, we would have had to unhook the “toad”.  That would have been a huge deal with the tow dolly and a car with a dead battery (you have to leave the key in the accessory position and that takes a toll on the battery).  While Pat did the shopping, I walked the area and found a very easy exit route.  As they say, “we got the heck out of Dodge”.

We arrived at the track late afternoon and parked close to the dragstrip return road (map).  If you zoom in on the map, you can see the dragstrip and road race course.  That proved interesting, since they had a Friday night drag event.  We got to see a lot of neat cars and I got to walk the pits to “rubber neck”.  When we went to bed, we were concerned that the cars going down the return road would keep us awake, but we went to sleep quite quickly.

Saturday and Sunday I worked as a  volunteer “corner worker” on corner 9.  That is a fairly “active” corner with several people overshooting the corner.  There were two of us at the corner and we were kept pretty busy displaying the yellow flag.  Sunday they seemed to have a better handle on the corner.  We did have a car drop a bunch of oil on the track going into our corner.  That got interesting.  I was displaying the debris flag and telling the cars how to avoid the trail of oil.  I watched a car ignore my direction then quickly spin right at the apex of the our corner {grin}.

Being a corner worker is a mixed bag.  You are right on the track and get to observe some neat racing, but you are on your feet eight hours a day.  I used my scanner, with headphones, to monitor the control frequency, so I was quite informed about the race and the “inside” information.  Saturday, we had terrible dust storms and a bit of rain.  Sunday was hot (91 degrees).  They really treat the volunteer workers very well.  We wear all white and the racers go out of their way to thank us.   We get to go to the head of the line for a free lunch, and the special Saturday night barbeque  (catered by Bennetts Barbeque).

I have attended races here before, but this is my favorite event.  It is the Trans-Am Invitational which brings out both the neat vintage cars, as well as the “big-bore” cars which include Corvettes, Mustangs, Can-Am, etc.  In addition there are “exhibition”  vehicles.  At this race, there were older Indy Cars and some very high performance Porsches.  A typical lap time for a fast vintage car (such as a BMW 2002) is about 1:45 (one minute fourty five seconds), the Indy cars were doing it in 1:34 and a very fast, modern Porsche did a 1:31 lap. 

While I was working the corner, Pat “holed up” in the bus and had a great time.  She got some Stampin’ Up!  work done, did some reading, and caught up on recorded TV shows.  Unfortunately, reading is a bit of a problem for her right now.  We had hoped that her new glasses that had been prescribed for her cataract surgery would really improve her vision.  It has not, and she is having a hard time reading.  We have a doctor appointment this afternoon to see what is going on.

Now lets talk about our Internet connection while we are on the road.  We have discontinued our HughesNet satellite service – both at home and on the bus.  The satellite speed has degraded quite significantly over the past few years.  At times it was slower than a good dial up connection.  At home we use Comcast cable and it really is very fast.  About a year ago we got a Verizon air card as a backup to the satellite and for when we travel without the bus.  We also reasoned that we could use the air card in place of the satellite in the bus, and also use other wifi networks at times (like our relatives in Iowa).  We also have internet via our iPhones as well.  We understand that their will be situations where we do not have cell signal, but we will have to face that problem when it occurs.

Recently we upgraded the air card to a Verizon 4G LTE unit.  It turns out that creates all kinds of problems, many of which are Verizon based.  That is strange, since the card is a Verizon branded product.  It turns out that the major issue is that the software has a hard time dealing with a 4G modem when only 2G or 3G is available.

I spent several hours over a few days trying to get things sorted out so that we can get online.  First I tried to connect the air card directly via our computer and that resulted in huge problems that are well documented on the Internet.  I finally gave up and started working on getting the air card connected to our Cradlepoint router.  In order to do that, I needed to update the firmware for both the router and the interface with the air card.  That is fun to do when you have to download the firmware with a very sporadic connection.  In any case, I finally got the connection working and we have networked access to our email and the Internet, albeit a bit slow at times.

Now, back to this trip.  Yesterday was our shortest drive that we can recall – about 500 yards {grin}.  It turns out that we had to vacate the track area so they could lock it up Sunday night and I did not want to drive back to Evergreen last night.  I had checked with the track folks and they said we could park just outside the locked gates.  Worked out very well. 

In a few minutes we will head home.

That is all now for this trip.

Hello from Brush, CO

Friday morning  June 1, 2012   (Third travelogue of this trip).

We are at the Shell truck stop in Brush Colorado (map).  Wednesday night we stayed at another Shell truck stop in York Nebraska. 

It is impossible to detail all of the activity that took place in Iowa.  Pat’s brother Jeff and his wife Julie were there for a few days as was our daughter Lisa and her family.  We all went to the auction on Sunday (5/27) and had a great time.  Monday night we had a mini-family reunion at Pat’s cousin’s (Danny and Terri) house.  It was great weather for the picnic and we really got a chance to visit with some relatives that we don’t get to spend as much time as we would like.

Saturday night we went out to eat at a favorite restaurant – Pizza Ranch in Creston.  After dinner we toured Creston to see the huge amount of damage that a tornado caused a few weeks ago.  The hospital and college had major damage and many houses, apartment buildings and businesses were extensively damaged.  Many will have to be torn down.

Pat and Jeanne did quite a few family things while Bill and I did some farming.  For two days I ran the hay baler.  This baler produces the 6 foot round (1600-1800 pound) bales.  During the two days, I made over 60 bales!  This part of Iowa is quite hilly and a couple of the bales rolled down the hills or followed me as I tried to close the rear door and start back on the windrow.  I think I took about 10 years off of Bill’s life, but he did not yell at me {grin}.  We also did some other repair work.  Kind of felt like a real farmer (yeah, right). 

As usual, the meals were fantastic.  We ate out a couple of times, but most of the meals were home cooking with great Iowa pork and beef.  Lisa’s husband Dan even introduced the Iowa folks to his great green chili.

Wednesday we reluctantly left Iowa and headed towards Colorado.  We had planned a three day drive to Pueblo.  We ran into some pretty good rain after we left Prescott and decided to cut the day a bit short and stop in York Nebraska.  Yesterday we drove a bit over 350 miles and ended here in Brush. 

From here we will take Colorado 71 south almost all the way to Pueblo.   It will probably not be the best highway, but we will avoid all of the traffic on I 25 through Denver and Colorado Springs.  Besides, we like to get off the interstate highways once in a while.

We are heading to Pueblo so that I can serve as a volunteer at a major vintage car event      (http://rmvr.com/event/2012-trans-am-invitational/ ).  I used to attend these races with a good friend and really missed the events.  I decided to volunteer as a “corner worker”.  In preparation I attended a two day “Crash and Burn” training class in March and did some training at a drivers training class at Pikes Peak International Raceway in April.  I really enjoy this kind of racing and being a corner worker puts you right in the middle of the activity.  I listen to the race control radio channel with my scanner and that really adds to the experience.  Besides, they desperately need volunteers.

That is all for now.

Hello from Prescott, Iowa

Tuesday evening  May 22, 2012   (Second travelogue of this trip).

Thursday morning we left North Platte about 10:00 and got to Corning about 4:30.  That was just in time to temporarily park the bus and join Pat’s cousin so that we could go Jeanne’s mom’s nursing home annual barbeque.  After the barbeque we drove the bus over the Bill and Jeanne’s farm where we parked in our “reserved” spot (map) .

I thought I would go back and discuss the wind that we encountered both days of our travel.  We have only been in worse conditions one other time (they closed the highway to high profile vehicles that time).  The wind was so bad that it blew our rather heavy engine door open twice.  That is not a big deal, but it really got our attention.  In addition, one of our clearance light covers blew off while I was fueling (and getting sandblasted!).

Thankfully, the bus handles pretty well in the wind.  It was a south wind and each time we went by a hill, underpass, or trees, I had to quickly adjust the steering wheel of the change in wind velocity.  Passing semis was a bit of a challenge, but I did not feel at risk.

The car and tow dolly seemed to do well.  I am not completely happy with the wheel strap system, so I have ordered a couple of pieces of hardware that should make securing the car quite a bit easier.  The tow dolly has surge disc brakes and that makes quite a difference in the braking.  Of course, we are getting better mileage since we are pulling a light car vs the heavy service truck (9600 pound).  We are fortunate to have a very powerful engine in the bus, so it is hard to tell the difference in performance, but the improvement in mileage is welcome.  I have attached a picture of the bus/car combination.

The weather back here has been great.  Warm in the day and quite cool in the evening.   There has been no recent rain, so the humidity is low.  The lack of rain is not good for the newly planted crops.  Bill finished up the last of the beans on Friday.

Pat and Jeanne have been working on Jeanne’s mom’s house to get it ready to rent to her nephew and his wife.  Bill and I have been getting some work done on some vehicles.  We installed a new roof air conditioner on Joel and Nikki’s motorhome and we have been working on the AC in Bill’s semi truck.  That AC is acting very strange according to my gauges and we will have to continue to sort out what is going on.

Sunday we went to the auction at Pat’s uncle’s facility.  It was not a huge auction, but I did manage to buy a few tools (pretty good bargains).  They have another auction next Sunday that sounds like it will have some pretty neat stuff.  We always enjoy the auctions!!!

That is all for now.